20 great and timeless truths from the works of Charles Dickens

Written as social commentary, the truths taught in Charles Dickens' novels are as timeless and relevant today as when he wrote them.

Becky Rickman

I love Charles Dickens. He wrote from personal experience to expose things to the world about life and how dark it could be, but also how full of redemption.
Here are some great truths which also happen to be passages from some of his works:
Live below your means to be happy. "Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six, results happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound ought and six, result misery." -David Copperfield Never be afraid to cry."Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlaying our hard hearts. I was better after I had cried, than before - more sorry, more aware of my own ingratitude, more gentle." -Great Expectations You can't deny love. "Once for all; I knew to my sorrow, often and often, if not always, that I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be." ―Great Expectations On the value of being childlike. "In short, I should have liked to have had the lightest license of a child, and yet be man enough to know its value." -A Christmas Carol Appreciating what you have. "In short, I should have liked to have had the lightest license of a child, and yet be man enough to know its value." -A Christmas Carol (This one quote had two important messages!) Learn from your broken heart. "Suffering has been stronger than all other teaching, and has taught me to understand what your heart used to be. I have been bent and broken, but - I hope - into a better shape." -Great Expectations Help and serve others. "No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another." -Doctor Marigold Stay positive. "It is a fair, even-handed, noble adjustment of things, that while there is infection in disease and sorrow, there is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humour." -A Christmas Carol Be strong enough to live right. "In a word, I was too cowardly to do what I knew to be right, as I had been too cowardly to avoid doing what I knew to be wrong." -Great Expectations Count your blessings. "Reflect upon your present blessings - of which every man has many - not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some." -A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Writings Appreciate happiness when it comes. "Happiness is a gift and the trick is not to expect it, but to delight in it when it comes." -Nicholas Nickleby On different types of wisdom. "There is a wisdom of the head, and . . . there is a wisdom of the heart." -Hard Times The result of small choices. "I wear the chain I forged in life . . . I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it." -A Christmas Carol Live a deliberate life. "My meaning simply is, that whatever I have tried to do in life, I have tried with all my heart to do well; that whatever I have devoted myself to, I have devoted myself to completely; that in great aims and in small, I have always been thoroughly in earnest." -David Copperfield Essence of family. "They came to see that family need not be defined merely as those with whom we share blood, but as those for whom we would give our blood." -Nicholas Nickleby People's true nature shines through. "No varnish can hide the grain of the wood; and that the more varnish you put on, the more the grain will express itself." -Great Expectations Credit is bad. "[Credit is a system whereby] a person who can't pay, gets another person who can't pay, to guarantee that he can pay." -Little Dorrit Secret of a happy marriage. "There can be no disparity in marriage like unsuitability of mind and purpose." -David Copperfield Love as it should be. "If I may so express it, I was steeped in Dora. I was not merely over head and ears in love with her, but I was saturated through and through. Enough love might have been wrung out of me, metaphorically speaking, to drown anybody in; and yet there would have remained enough within me, and all over me, to pervade my entire existence." -David Copperfield Face time. "Electric communication will never be a substitute for the face of someone who with their soul encourages another person to be brave and true." -Charles Dickens %3Cimg%20src%3D%22http%3A//beacon.deseretconnect.com/beacon.gif%3Fcid%3D152932%26pid%3D46%22%20/%3E

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.